Posts for tag: root canal treatment

Along with periodontal (gum) disease, tooth decay poses one of the two greatest threats to your teeth. Cavities are just the start: if decay invades the pulp, the tooth’s innermost layer, the infection created can continue to advance through the root canals to the supporting bone. This worst case scenario could cost you your tooth.

But we can stop this advanced decay in its tracks with a procedure called a root canal treatment. A root canal essentially removes all the infected tissue within the tooth and then seals it from further infection. And contrary to its undeserved reputation for being painful, a root canal can actually stop the severe tooth pain that decay can cause.

At the beginning of the procedure, we deaden the affected tooth and surrounding tissues with local anesthesia—you’ll be awake and alert, but without pain. We then isolate the tooth with a dental dam of thin rubber or vinyl to create a sterile environment around it to minimize contamination from bacteria found in saliva and the rest of the mouth.

We then drill a small hole through the enamel and dentin to access the interior of the tooth. With special instruments, we remove and clean out all the diseased or dead tissue in the pulp chamber and root canals. After disinfecting the empty spaces with an antibacterial solution, we’ll shape the root canals to make it easier to perform the next step of placing the filling.

To fill all the root canals and pulp chamber, we typically use a rubber-like material called gutta-percha. Because it’s thermoplastic (“thermo”—heat; “plastic”—to shape), we can compress it into and against the walls of the root canals in a heated state to fully seal them. This is crucial for preventing the empty tooth interior from becoming re-infected. Afterward, we’ll seal the access hole with its own filling; later, we’ll bond a permanent crown to the tooth for additional protection and cosmetic enhancement.

After the procedure you may have some temporary minor discomfort usually manageable with aspirin or ibuprofen, but your nagging toothache will be gone. More importantly, your tooth will have a second chance—and your dental health and smile will be the better for it.

Children have a lot of energy that's often channeled through physical activities and sports. Unfortunately, this also increases their risk of injuries, particularly to their teeth.

Injuries to the mouth can endanger permanent teeth's survival. For an older tooth, a root canal treatment might be in order. Not so, though, for a pre-adolescent tooth, even if it is permanent.

A young permanent tooth is still developing dentin, the large layer just below the enamel. This growth depends on the connective tissue, blood vessels and nerves within the pulp in the center of the tooth. Because a root canal treatment removes all of this tissue, it could stunt dentin and root growth and endanger the tooth's future.

Instead, we may need to treat it with one of a number of modified versions of a root canal, depending on what we find. If the tooth's pulp is unexposed, for example, we may need only to remove the damaged dentin, while still leaving a barrier of dentin to protect the pulp. We then apply an antibacterial agent to minimize infection and fill in the area where we've removed tooth structure.

If some of the pulp is exposed, we may perform a pulpotomy to remove just the affected pulp and any overgrown tissue. We then place a substance that encourages dentin growth and seal it in with a filling. If we go deeper toward the root end, we might also perform procedures that encourage the remaining pulp to form into a root end to stabilize the tooth.

If the entire pulp has been damaged beyond salvage, we may then turn to a procedure called an apexification. In this case we clean out the pulp chamber; at the root end we place mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), a growth stimulator that encourages surrounding bone to heal and grow. We then fill in the root canals and chamber with a special filling called gutta percha to seal the tooth.

The deeper we must penetrate into the pulp, the higher the chances the young tooth's dentin and roots won't form properly, leading to later problems and possible loss. But by employing the appropriate one of these methods, we can minimize the risk and give your child's damaged tooth a fighting chance.

Over a lifetime, teeth can endure temperatures ranging from freezing to near boiling, biting forces of as much as 150 pounds per square inch and a hostile environment teeming with bacteria. Yet they can still remain healthy for decades.

But while they’re rugged, they’re not indestructible — they can incur serious damage from tooth decay or periodontal (gum) disease, two of the most prevalent oral infections. If that happens, you could be faced with the choice of removing the tooth or trying to save it.

Because today’s restorations like dental implants are quite durable and amazingly life-like, it might seem the decision is a no-brainer — just rid your mouth of the troubled tooth and replace it. But from a long-term health perspective, it’s usually better for your gums, other teeth and mouth structures to try to save it.

How we do that depends on the disease and degree of damage. Tooth decay, for example, starts when high levels of acid soften the minerals in the outer enamel. This creates a hole, or cavity, that we typically treat first by filling with metal amalgam or, increasingly, composite resins color-matched to the tooth.

If decay has invaded the pulp (the innermost layer of the tooth), you’ll need a root canal treatment. This procedure removes infected material from the pulp and replaces the empty chamber and the root canals with a special filling to guard against another infection. We then cap the tooth with a life-like crown for added protection.

Gum disease, on the other hand, is caused by dental plaque (a thin film of bacteria and food particles on tooth surfaces), and requires a different approach. Here, the strategy is to remove all of the plaque and calculus (hardened plaque deposits) we can find with special hand instruments or ultrasonic equipment, and often over several sessions. If the infection extends deeper or has created deep pockets of disease between the teeth and gums, surgery or more advanced techniques may be necessary.

Though effective, some of these treatments can be costly and time-consuming; the tooth itself may be beyond repair. Your best move is to first undergo a complete dental examination. From there, we can give you your best options for dealing with a problem tooth.